Hot-to-trot UK artists Mumford & Sons are everyone’s darlings…except mine. What’s wrong with my ears?

Last week, amid scores and scores of my music friends clamoring about the new Mumford & Sons release, Babel, I kept my mouth shut.  Why? I do not get the hype.  For someone who considers music her biggest passion in life, you’d think I would be ashamed to admit these things, huh?  I’m not.

I do feel like I’m just missing something, though.  What in the world makes people ga-ga over them?  [Aside: I also don’t get Muse, and I thought John Mayer was better when Clay Cook was writing his songs, so I guess I just have no musical sense whatsoever.]

It’s not that I don’t appreciate their talent – I do.  The dudes obviously have some serious chops.  But sometimes, the ear just love what the ear loves – and mine does not love Mumford. Call me blasphemous, I suppose, but I just don’t think they’re all that original.

That said, when word got out today that Daytrotter had a new Mumford & Sons session up with a cover of Springsteen’s “Atlantic City”…well, I had to go check it out.  It’s one of my favorite Bruce songs, and I can appreciate someone who does a great cover of it. If anything can make me love a band, it’s turning a Springsteen song into something new and original.  That’s how I caught on to The Hold Steady, after all. My love for Matthew Ryan blossomed upon hearing his cover of “Something in the Night.”  And I developed a new found appreciation for Ben Harper after he covered “My Father’s House.”

But alas, even Bruce love can’t help this cause.  The cover didn’t stir my soul.  I’m still completely loveless for Mumford.

Really, is there something wrong with my ears that I don’t get this band?  Someone help me out.